A Surprising Start to a New Year

I have come to realize twice in my life now, that no matter how bad you may want something...the minute you decide that you can do without...well that's when Heavenly Father seems to hand it over to you. I know this is not the case in all things, but I have seen it quit often in people's lives.

For example, my own first personal experience was when I met my hubby. Prior to being interested in my hubby, I had been dating someone on and off for quite some time. I wasn't necessary "in love" with him, but I did love and care about him in such a way that I realized that I finally had to let it go. Our relationship was always up and down. We weren't necessarily the best influences on each other either. Needless to say, I finally realized that this boyfriend of mine had things that he needed to take care of, and I was being selfish by keeping him from being more than he could be. At least that's what I felt at the time.

So I called it off....for like the fifth time. It was ridiculous, but I knew that this time I had to stand my ground. I knew I was going to lose a good friend, and I think that is why I kept holding on. Needless to say, my intuition was right and we parted never really speaking again. So sad. It was a very hard time. I didn't really speak to anyone much about it besides my roommates, and even then...I didn't give them the whole story.

It wasn't but a week later, I was attending an institute class where I overheard some caddie girls talking about who they thought was cute/hot. Oddly enough, one of them asked me who I favored in the guys around? I literally was disgusted and not really wanting to have this discussion. I not only thought, but stated "I'm done with boys!" Rolling my eyes. In my mind I was...completely utterly done. I didn't want to have anything to do with the opposite sex. Sure enough, the minute I spoke this low and behold Pablo walks into the 'tute.

I'll never forget when I saw him. It was like "duh, where have you been Tiana?" I think the whole semester I had been the friend who listened to all the drama of Pablo. Girls left and right were turning to me to tell me their crushes on Pablo and there were even little sprawls amongst girls. Yet I never really gave it much attention. All that time I had just listened to them all, whining, arguing, denying their emotions about Pablo. The funny thing was, I had confided in him at times. There were a couple of times in which I had spoke to him about my ex, and he sweetly gave advise or just listened. At that instant I remembered how he never really judged me, and he was always very kind to me. I then replied again to the caddie girls, "Well, maybe Pablo. He seems awful nice." Regretting my big mouth...I then turned away. I then thought, "why did I say that? I hardly know Pablo. There are so many girls here that would love to date him, and there is no way he'd pick me. I'm white. He's Latin. I am so far from the girls he goes or would go for?" With those thoughts, I decided to just push the whole notion away. Forget it. You don't have time for this nonsense. Little did I know that Pablo did!

With that said, Heavenly Father brought Pablo into my life when I was not expecting it. I have been a member now for nine years. Throughout my years in the church I have ALWAYS been in Relief Society, at least since I have been married. I think once I was given a ward missionary calling when Pablo & I were newlyweds.

Anyhow, I have fulfilled lots of callings in Relief Society and have LOVED every minute of it. Deep down though, I had a desire and at times an envy for those who taught in young womens. Not really an envy cause I wanted to teach, but instead that I wanted to be a part of it. You see, being a convert I never had the opportunity to go through the young women program. I hear all the wonderful traits, goals and achievements they offer, and I wished I could have been a part of something so special. I had longed for it for quite sometime, but then just recently I learned how important it is to recognize and learn from the callings Heavenly Father gives you (this is another whole story). So what did I do....I let it go. The whole thought and notion of doing young womens just went away. I became satisfied with the idea that now wasn't my time and maybe someday down the line Heavenly Father would give me that opportunity. When he would, I would be happy and give it my all...even if I was grey haired and uncool.

Sure enough, that is when it happened. Pablo & I were sitting in Sunday school when we were requested to meet with a member of our bishopric. I automatically thought Pablo was getting a calling. I was already soooo busy being Visiting Teaching Coordinator that there is no way they would remove me from it. Little did I know that the brethren were actually calling me to be YW's secretary. I was in shock. literally. I couldn't believe it.

With that said, it has now been two weeks since I have been called. I am still in shock and soooo nervous. Now that I'm here, I am so afraid and cautious. These girls are so precious in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. They will be the ones molding our futures. I am so clueless with young women and the whole program. It's a complete different mind scheme. It's crazy! Since I did not grow up with it, I don't know the motto, personal progress, etc. I don't even know how the auxiliary goes? It's going to be an adventure, but already I can tell that these girls are so special and I am thrilled to be a part of it. How lucky they are to have this program, and how lucky I am to feel of the sweet spirit these young women bring. Here's to a fun, interesting, growing new year! I can't wait!

Recap of 2009 Resolutions

I like to look back to see how many resolutions were ACTUAL accomplished. Here is what I wrote in the beginning of 2009.

Here They Go...
1. Read one novel/book a month. That's 12 books in a year...totally capable right?
2. Potty train my little boy by August!
3. Find a non-profit to volunteer two hours every couple of weeks at.
4. Sign up for voice lessons-- I wonder if I'm capable of singing?
5. Learn more scriptures references by memory/heart.
6. Do some Family history!
7. Re due my Europe scrapbook that's falling apart!
8. Of course....Get Into Shape

What was really done...

#1 - I did read 12 books in the year. It wasn't necessarily per month, but at least I had the final total right!

#2 MY LITTLE BOY HAS BEEN POTTY TRAINED SINCE AUGUST! Yippee! Of course we still have to work on night times, but it is sooooo nice to have him diaper free in the day! He's gotten really good with his aim too! Haha.

#3 I didn't volunteer as often as I would have liked of, but we did do the pillow drive which I AM COUNTING!

#8 THIS IS THE BEST ONE! Well second to best...I think my little boy being potty trained is the BEST. I'm not in shape as I would fully like to be BUT I lost 10 pounds & have kept it off. Last week I went to get new jeans cause I finally admitted to myself that maybe my jeans were too big. Guess what? I DROPPED A WHOLE PANT SIZE! Even one size down feels a bit big, but I don't want to push my luck. I still have more to go, but I am very proud of myself for this accomplishment!

Overall, I'm please that I at least accomplished one resolution! Most people don't even get to do that! I'm sooo excited for 2010! I'm going to make these goals GOOD!
Stay tuned for my new resolutions soon!

Pillow Drive Success!

If you read our family blog, this post may be redundant. Just in case though...I thought I'd post an update on the pillow drive. Thanks to all our friends, family & neighbors...we were able to raise 215 pillows in total. We DOUBLED our goal of 100 pillows! Yippee!
Here are some fun pictures of our venture in picking up the pillows at Ikea. The Road Home homeless facility was thrilled! It's always good to make a difference, even if it seems so small.

As for my resolution "Find a non-profit to volunteer two hours every couple of weeks at," well maybe I was being WAY ambitious. Yeah, it didn't happened. BUT I did find out that The Road Home has LOTS of volunteer opportunities, one being to read to homeless children. I'm really considering to take Mia & Coey with me to read next year. I just have to find out the ends & outs of it. I LOVE reading books to kids, so this might be a great opportunity.

I'm going to semi count the pillow drive though towards the resolution to help a non-profit. Again something is better than nothing.

Books Resolution Accomplished!

I've been meaning to blog about my resolution accomplishment for over a week now. December has been so busy that I haven't had the time. I'm very excited to say that I accomplished my 2009 New Year's Resolution to read 12 books, even if two of them were Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books.

My neighbor Keri read my post about The Vampire Diaries. She bought them & was hooked. Lucky for me, she let me read the first book which consists of two novels:
The Awakening & The Struggle


I completed The Awakening a week or so ago. SO GOOD! Totally better than Twilight. It's a bit darker than the Twilight series, but not horrific or vulgar. The relationship between Stephan & Elena is way more intriguing. It is WAY different from the series too. I'm kind of glad the series is so different, so now I can get into both and not have to compare so much. So I am proud to brag that my taste as a 16 year old was just as good then as it is now that I am almost 31!

The exciting part: My hubby bought me the remaining books for Christmas, so I now have my old complete set back plus one additional novel! Yippee! Looks like I will have 5 novels at least completed for next year!

I also finished reading Mrs. Piggle Wiggle's magic with my daughter. Since it is labeled "magic," the remedies for the kids were a bit far fetched. It was still as cute as ever!


I really liked this resolution to read 12 books in a year. It got me into reading again! I think I am going to keep this resolution for next year too! Maybe I'll surpass my resolution for 2010!
Here's to hoping!

Homemade Aprons!

I have ventured into sewing this holiday season, and BOY HAS IT BEEN AN ADVENTURE. I was taught how to make some aprons at a Super Saturday craft event a while back. I thought they would be the perfect gift, but let me just say.....OUCH! Sewing takes patients! I started to get the hang of it though, so I guess sewing is like most things....just takes practice. The difficult was mainly my fault though because I had to pick a difficult fabric.

Anyhow, here is the final touch of Nina's (Pablo's sister). Her family calls her Nini, so I thought it would be cute to add that. She kind of has an old fashion style, so I thought these colors looked well together. I pictures aren't the best, but you get the idea. I'm pretty sure Nina doesn't really check my personal blog much, so I think I'm safe to post it! If she sees it...well MERRY CHRISTMAS NINA! I also made a small one for Mia, and I still have more to go!

PILLOW DRIVE!

Bring comfort to someone's life by just giving a PILLOW!

Our family has decided to help THE ROAD HOME of Salt Lake City in sponsoring a PILLOW drive. We are collecting clean, good conditioned pillows for the homeless of Salt Lake City. Volunteer coordinator, Ashley Farmer, advised us that "A pillow drive would be AWESOME!! We always get blanket drives and not pillows."

Pillows are such a need in helping not only the shelters but the housing programs of The Road Home. Take this time to give back to our community & help those who need it most. Here are your options:

1. Drop off a clean, good conditioned pillow to our home so we can donate it for you.

2. Contact Tiana Driaza via email or phone if you would like to give a money donation to help in purchasing pillows. Cash, check or debit/credit cards accepted.

As of today, IKEA has pillows for only .99 cents!!!! With all the money we collect for this drive, our family will be going to either IKEA or Walmart to purchase new pillows to donate to The Road Home.We will also be going door to door in our neighborhoods asking for donations. As you can see even $1 per household can make a difference!!

Our goal is to collect at least 100 pillows (if not more) to donate this holiday season! We are very excited & know we can achieve this!!!

Feel free to ask any questions or concerns on the event wall. Also feel free to view THE ROAD HOME's website at: http://www.theroadhome.org or you can just click on any of "The Road Home."

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this & we look forward in receiving your help with this cause!

PS.Feel free to leave a comment on here if you would like to contribute in anyway. Thank you!

New Moon Review

Yes. I went to see it. The trailers totally pulled me in. I was very curious as to see how they would portray Jacob turning into a werewolf and the whole Italy scene at the end.
What did I think? Well overall I think they did a good job. The werewolves were amazing. I loved how they portrayed their facial expressions as wolves.

The action & effects were ten times better than Twilight for sure. The scenery of the woods was WAY better & gorgeous. The acting was a bit better (except for Edward). I LOVED the Volturi at the end. They were perfect! Just as I imagined. Out of all actors--Jacob, Bella's dad, & the Volturi were the best.

Downfalls: Okay I was DYING in the movie because of Bella. Let me just first say that I can't stand Bella, not even in the books. Plus I can't stand the actress the plays Bella. She's just weird. Simply put. Yes I think that she plays Bella well, which probably makes me even more annoyed. The first half of the movie was torture because of Bella's whining. My hubby was way annoyed by it also. It wasn't until Jacob & Bella's relations started and the werewolves were revealed, that the actual movie started to get good.
Funny thing is...I felt the same exact way in the book.
So...if you want to base it on how it follows the book...I'd say it's to a tee!
Would I buy the movies, probably not. The books aren't even worth buying to me.
I'll go see the movies though, just because I like to compare it to the book.Oh and Edward. YUCK!I think if they had picked a better actor for Edward, I might have been convinced.